Save Article

The First Real Boom in Virtual Reality? It’s Pornography.

Naughty America, one of the world’s most prolific producers of VR content, is at the forefront of a lucrative niche driving adoption of the technology

By

David M. Ewalt

July 11, 2018 10:43 a.m. ET

Jill the babysitter is walking across the kitchen when she notices someone sitting at the counter. “Oh my god!” she says, clutching the towel wrapped around her body. “Mr. Johnson! I hope you don’t mind I used the shower.”

Mr. Johnson, like the babysitter, is a character in an adult video, and the actor who plays him doesn’t have any lines. The audience will never hear his voice or see his face, even though he does have a big part in the movie. This is virtual-reality pornography, and every scene is shot from his point of...

Facial recognition is increasingly used by law-enforcement agencies and in schools, retail stores and other venues, spurring privacy concerns. In this episode of Moving Upstream, we test out the technology.

Auto makers and other companies racing to commercialize self-driving car technology are facing pushback from local politicians, complicating their plans to bring real-world testing to more U.S. cities.